Women's March on Washington

It was food for the soul. To stand in a crowd of fierce but kind people who are fired the fuck up is electrifying. When we passed the 1000+ buses parked at RFK Stadium on the way in on the Metro, I cried. An older woman patted my shoulder and gave me a look letting me know that she's been there before. When we passed people on platforms because the trains were jam packed and everyone cheered, I teared up. When we stepped out into the crowd and saw so so many people with their signs and their hats and their determination...my heart just swelled and it stayed puffed up all day. I didn't know how much I needed that until I got there.

The energy in the crowd could have powered the sun. It is just absolutely tremendous to stand in that. It is a feeling like nothing else. It was so packed and attendance was so over expectation that we actually couldn't march without fighting the crowd the whole way so it was more like shuffling when we did walk - people were everywhere on the planned route. Yet people were nice, not pushy, quick to help others, happy to share food they brought or a smile, complimentary of creative signs, and patient in a crowd that required tremendous patience.

It was patriotic as hell. People traveled from all over to spend their money and day off standing in their nation's capital shoulder to shoulder with people they don't know, with no place to sit, few places to pee, not a lot of trash cans, pretty much no access to outside food, in the damp, simply to show up and be seen...this was not a gathering of people who hate America and should just leave because we can't get behind a man who ran his election on not getting behind us.

It wasn't single issue. People were there for so many reasons. We all have that one issue that is tops for us. So we weren't there looking at people who felt the same as us on every single thing. But I can probably safely say that everyone there believes in love over hate, inclusivity, and that women's rights are human rights. We probably disagree about the order of importance of those issues and would like to add another issue or two each, but yeah. The last line of the March's Mission and Vision is: We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all. HEAR OUR VOICE. Notice the use of equity, not equality. 

It wasn't in one location. It's estimated that over 3.5 million people around the globe stood up for human rights and women's rights. The images are incredible. The world is not only watching, the world is standing up because we are linked by so many things. To see images from around the country and around the world was amazing. Photos can be seen at New York Times Pictures From Women's Marches on Every Continent and Heavy (sorted by location).

It's not the end. Well, it's the end if you intend to sit on your ass. If not, then it's the beginning. There is grassroots work to do and it's moving quickly. If you were unable to get to a March or are uninterested in ever doing anything like that but believe in any of the above, there is action for you to take. If you don't know where to begin to start being more active or involved in your government, email me (lifeaccordingtosteph@gmail.com) and I will do my best to get you to resources that will help you. If you  have ever wanted to run for office on a progressive platform, the time is now. You have so many people salivating to help you.

People are turned off by the vulgarity on signs and in speeches. Well shit. Let's all go home, put our aprons on, shut our mouths, and make the goddamn sandwiches. Ladies, only men are allowed to say pussy. But there's no double standard. It is despicable to tsk tsk more about women daring to use vulgar signs and words at a women's march than it is to chatter about how fucking insane it is that Brock Turner is not in jail. Please spare me the hypocrisy.

People say no one has lost any rights yet so why protest? Would you prefer we wait until after the rights are gone and then go through a legal battle with the government? Would it be okay for us to protest then? Fortunately, we don't need permission or approval. We showed up en masse to say We're here. We're not going anywhere. 

People said we don't need it.  Maybe people don't know that men (and other women, wtf) are still debating over our uteri and what we do with them and introducing bills and laws about our body parts; that America does not have paid maternity leave; that there is still a 20% wage gap in many fields; that many women do not feel safe walking alone at night. I could go on but I won't. p s - this is an actual senator talking about women in a derisive manner. Good people we have in government, huh? Link to that post of his is here. I want to know if he can afford to be such a dick on facebook, why can't he afford that viagra that's included with his healthcare?

Women said it wasn't for them. By all accounts in my life I am certainly not oppressed. I am strong and I can stand on my own. I get paid what my male counterparts get paid.  I don't think I've ever been described as anything remotely like a helpless female in all of my life. I have come up against sexism and misogyny and I have thrashed back. But the pesky things that come along with systemic misogyny that I listed in the above item and more remain. I know many women feel empowered and are indignant about people saying we're not equal. I get that. I do. It feels fucking terrible to say that. And no one is taking away your personal power here. I wouldn't ask anyone why they didn't go or think less of them for not going which is why I'm sort of floored at how nasty women have gotten towards those who did go. I support every woman's ability to make her own choices in every single area of her life about what is best for her and her family even when they do not line up with mine. You see what I did there? Your life. Your choices. My life. My choices. My personal belief is that until we're all equal, none of us are. I know my surface equality comes from my equity - where I was born, the color I am, the family I was born in to, my ability to get a college degree, the opportunities and mentoring I've had - and I know not every woman has those things. I worked my ass off to get where I am and I'm not interested in handing anyone the world on a silver platter - but I'm interested in leveling the playing field so we all come off of the same starting block to have the opportunity to be successful if we work hard. Not every little girl gets told that she can do and be anything and put on a path with relatively few real world obstacles. Until every little girl is told that and shown that in the world's actions, my ass will be out on the streets. I'm not going to be like oh, okay, I'm good, you guys keep fighting the good fight. I'm still here. I'm still with you. I will stand next to you and lend you my voice if you need it. Our lives are not the same, our issues are not the same, but I will listen and I will stand up with you and I will do what I can to help. If you need more than one of us to rise, I can probably round up a crew.
For people who said things like that better, click to read To Christy on Facebook, who doesn't need the Women's March   or You're Not Equal. I'm Sorry. 

Pro-life women said they were excluded. Aren't we all pro-life? I live it, I am. But not all of us are pro-birth. In an ideal world we would all be pro-choice across the board. You have to be able to say I trust each woman to do what is best for her and her family. I don't get to make choices for anyone else's body because I certainly do not want them making choices for mine. We need to support other women even if they choose not to have kids, if they have more kids than we think they should, if they have less kids than we think they should, if they feed the kids they have differently than what we think is best, work when we think they should stay home, stay home when we think they should work, and on and on. I don't think you can be a feminist if you are okay with government putting laws on women's bodies. Feminism implies an implicit trust in women and their autonomy. You can be personally pro-life and still believe others can make their own choice. If you stand behind the government making those choices for us then no, it was not for you. At the March I went to in 2004, there was a large group with pro-life republicans for choice signs. They were widely embraced. If you show up with an abortion is murder sign to a rally like this, you probably want to make your way to the middle where those protesters are.

People who generally don't care much about the environment are freaking out over littering. Yes, you will have trash left over when 500,000 people descend on an area the day after another event. There are typically not many trash cans at these things anymore because Homeland Security prefers it that way after the Boston bombings. Many people carried their trash home with them. The trash cans were overflowing, no cleanup is done during the event, and people make piles as close to them as possible. Part of the permit fees go to cleanup, and the National Park Service said that was going well. Please show me an event with 500,000 people in attendance that is clean an hour after it ends. Hell, show me a football game with much less people in attendance that's clean an hour after it ends for that matter.
And the Snopes on it here: Women's March Protesters Dumped Their Signs?

People said it was anti-trump. My reasons for going weren't against him, but only because my  mindset is to always try to be for something rather than against something. But make no mistake, a lot of people are against what he has said and how he has acted. Me included. That is the consequence of brushing off references to sexual assault as locker room talk; grouping Mexican immigrants as people who bring drugs and crime and are rapists and vowing to build a wall against them; advocating for torture; not releasing your taxes; wanting Muslims to register for a database; saying women should be punished for having abortions; mocking a disabled reporter; urging his supporters to beat up protesters at a rally; describing global warming as a hoax; fraternizing with white supremacists on twitter; running a fraudulent university;  running with a vice president who believes in conversion therapy for LBGTQIA; repeatedly claiming for years that Obama was a Muslim; stiffing contractors; tweeting indiscriminately with no regard for adult behavior or diplomacy; lying about important shit and also really stupid shit; among a zillion other things. So, yeah. People are against him. That is the consequence of hateful words and actions. People are also against facism and a lot of his tactics have parallels to an authoritarian state. It's their right to be rabidly against him, just as it's someone's right to be rabidly for him. This is not going to be something we meet in the middle on. There is no opportunity for unity on the subject of this man. That's not negativity, it's reality.

If you attended Turn down the noise. Remember what it felt like there. Stay engaged. Stay plugged in. Don't let anyone ruin it for you. Don't feel small about it. It was big. Thank you for showing up.